Thieves appear to have started using the data stolen in the gigantic Equifax cyber-heist, one expert said Friday.
Credit card fraud unexpectedly spiked in August — and the expert said the jump was likely tied to the Equifax hack.
“We saw a 15 percent increase in the overall fraud attempts in our system in August, which is an unusual time of year to see such a spike,” said Liron Damri, co-founder of Forter, a fraud prevention service for online retailers.
Most online fraud surges occur during the holiday season, Damri said.
Equifax on Thursday said it was the victim of a cyber breach beginning in May that saw the personal data of as many as 143 million Americans taken by unidentified thieves.
The credit monitoring company discovered the hack in July — and presumably locked the cyber-door at that time. Damri said that might explain the August spike.
“Once the hackers knew they were exposed they could have dumped the financial information to monetize it,” Damri said.
Forter saw a similar spike in credit card fraud attempts following the 2015 cyber-attack on Target and the 2014 hack of Home Depot. The hacks of the retailers produced a three-month spike in fraud attempts, Damri said.
The Equifax breach is likely to last a lot longer, he said — likely well into next year.
“We have never seen such a massive breach as this,” Damri said.